‘To the Walter Mittys of the world he was all the heroes in one magnificent, sexy animal package’.
(Jack L. Warner, co-founder of Warner Bros, My First Hundred Years 1965 )
Nowadays it is common to see Australian actors in Hollywood feature films; names like Russell Crowe, Kate Blanchett, Chris Hemsworth, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie, are familiar to the movie-going public. Aussies have long been involved in the movie business. However, many decades ago, they were not always so prominent, particularly in Hollywood.
Before the advent of social media and even further back before television appeared in nearly every home, the stars of motion pictures were among the main media icons. In those bygone days, Hollywood films dominated world cinema. The idols of this golden age had talent and a charisma that made them household names such as Bette Davis, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford to name a few. One of these names was a home grown Aussie: Tasmanian-born Errol Flynn.
‘Errol Flynn: The True Story of Australia’s Hollywood Icon’ by Patricia A. O’Brien Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, 2026.
In his time as a box office draw, he was king of the swashbucklers – a category that included the swordsman, adventurer and pirate embodied in such fictional characters as Robin Hood, Don Juan and Captain Blood. Equally he could portray a western gunslinger, war hero or champion athlete.
While in reality, he never performed such feats of derring-do, his actual life was more adventurous than your average star of action films. With Errol Flynn, his private life and pre-stardom existence were not exactly ‘ordinary’. Among his exploits, he was a gold prospector and plantation overseer in New Guinea during his youth and later as a Hollywood star, he was a correspondent during the Spanish Civil War during the 1930s.
Whenever anyone reaches megastar status, the public image they project becomes blurred with the actual person behind it; aspects of their life are exaggerated, fabricated, even omitted to fit with their public persona. A competent biographer of such an individual has to separate the facts from the hype. Furthermore, given Flynn’s fame and the many previous bios about him, you’d expect that this latest one would have something ‘extra’ – something innovative about it. And this latest bio by Patricia O’Brien does not disappoint.
Although the facts of his screen career are covered in detail, this is not the sole focus. It digs deeper beyond his film star image and covers significant new ground. The author examines in detail themes hinted at or completely avoided in earlier bios. For example, it details the conflictual relationship between his parents including their many separations – something rarely covered in earlier works and never even mentioned in his posthumous autobiography. In addition, the author explores the previous generations of his family in the context of Tasmania’s colonial history.
Written by an academic, it lists many references and includes an index citing non-fiction books, newspaper and magazine articles and various public records in an effort to stick to verifiable facts. This emphasis avoids the speculation and sensationalism of previous bios but does not detract from its subject. (Besides, Flynn’s real life escapades are enough to keep the reader ‘entertained’).
While he might be long gone and forgotten (by many millennials, at least) this book reminds us of one of the most famous stars of Hollywood’s ‘Golden Age’. His career was not all fun and frolic. Apart from his swashbuckler heroics, he was an Aussie pioneer in at least one movie genre: Errol Flynn was the first non-US American actor to succeed as the lead in Hollywood westerns – and he did it without adopting an American accent!